The only one of Mike's cards that Art wasn't able to see,
was the one that he slid on the table, at the beginning, so he knew what kind
of card he could have chosen from "I'll put my hands under the table to choose
the next card, so he doesn't know what card I'll choice" that's what Mike
thought to fix his mistake. The chance of Art guessing was one in five and
instead Mike's one was about one in seventy-one, so there was a very big
disadvantage. After turning the cards, Art's card it's revealed, and it's the
world, the highest tarot card, the major Arcana n21. But while Mike was turning
his own card things didn't exactly go as planned. "Ugh… oops…". His left-hand
hurts, and because of that he chose to use it to turn so if it disappeared, he
wasn't forced to take them back on his hand like it happened before. "Why is it
hurting so much, why I can see always less of what's around him, where are his
cards? Am I totally losing my sight? Why is this happening to me?" What did I
do wrong?". All the questions that he had on his mind couldn't have a
definitive answer… yet. His hand was hurting so much that he thought that it'd
disappear in a moment, but… instead his right hand does. All of the cards once
again fall off of his hands, but this kind of thing in game has consequences.
The gaze of Art quickly became as dark as the sky above
them, Mike noticing it even if for a single moment in which his sight decided
to work decently says "Why are you so surprised?" and he says it in a so calm
tone that felt so weird with the sentence itself, but after all it's very hard
to make Mike feel something aside the everlasting pain that doesn't leave from years. The card that was opposing Art's card was the
card that first fell face up from Mike's hand, and it was the ten of pentacles.
"Why is he so worried about me choosing to use this card instead of the sun? He
knew my card, so he played the world to obtain what he wanted, but why then was
he so worried? He got what he wanted, and I accidentally kept the sun number
19, that I will not use… or will I?". The current situation Made Mike wonder if
following his original thought made sense, did he really understand how the
game works?". The kid speaks once again
to the two contestant and says "The winner and the one who will have the right
to go first, it's Art. Please Art choice from your remaining cards the ones you
want to play."
The voice of the kid sounded colder than ever, it was completely different how
normal virtual games should be, they often had a very immersive atmosphere,
with even guides that transmitted a lot of kinds of emotions. "There's
something wrong here, usually virtual game is either very difficult and
complex, or heavily roleplay based, but this game it's really something
different, for how it looks it could be a corrupted game." Mike thoughts were
also because he could still feel physical pain in there, and that should be
utterly impossible. Art chooses the tree card that he must play, and while he
does it, Mike thinks that Art is behaving in a weird manner since he isn't
concerned at all about the weird situation that was becoming so visibly bad for
him, was he in danger? Was it just a game? "I don't know if I can get out… ugh…
of this game… but I might be in serious danger, and something makes me feel
that the only way out of this it's get
out, but get our winning!" his thought didn't mean that he had any kind of
motivation to do so, he only thinks that this it's the right thing to do and
because of that he will do it. He was almost the same as a machine, but
machines can be very scary too.
Ray chooses the card that he wants to play too, and an instant after Art turned
his card he turned his own card too "What… what are you doing? You can't do
this?" To Arts confused words Mike answers, "Since when?" and he was right it
was never said in the rules that the second participant had to wait a certain
amount of time before playing the cards. The cards that Art choose were the
'death number 13, the ten of swords and the five of cups' all of them would
bring misfortune, a lot of it. Instead, Mike choose 'the sun, the wheel of
fortune and the ace of spades' the kid looks at them and says "I'll let the
first turn begin, have fun".
Mike and Art closed their eyes and falling asleep they
abandoned the table in which they were playing, and they were now in a totally
different place, but they ended in different locations. Mike opens his eyes
once again, he still feels bad, very bad and his perception is still awful but
at least he kept his memories "I was hoping that turning around my cards at the
same time with him would make the kid read the card together, as a single
scenario, I wish it worked. Then he looked around and scanning what he had
around him he says. "I am, ohhh. I am home, is this the place in which I'll
have to pass the first turn?" He saw in front of him his home, but it wasn't
very near to him, against that he had to
walk for a while to ger there, then he looks at his body, and what he sees is
his tiny body, that was even more tiny, he couldn't understand what was going
on "Why should I be here, on a rainy
day, as a 5 years old… under the rain with such a small umbrella… that is…
heavy… wait a minute".
Art woke up from the deep sleep in which he fell, he looks
around and he doesn't look surprised at all. He woke up in a car, it was
actually hid dad's car that was taking him to a special place. "Dad, when are
we arriving?" Art's dad answers "in an instant". Well that surely sounded nice
but he didn't know where they were heading, and since the situation ended in a
weird manner it would be reasonable to be thoughtful of concerned, but his face
it's anything but that, he didn't know where they were going, and he actually
didn't care too much about it too. He was so calm that he literally fell
asleep, until his father says to him, "hey big boy, it's time to wake up, we've
got business to do". Mike wakes up calmly and watches out of the car's window,
in front of him there's a huge and colorful buildings with lots of lights and
something written over it
fact was related to the wheel of fortune and that make him think that
everything went alright and that he has got the future predicted by Mike's
cards as he should have. But the place wasn't something casual related only to
the Mike's card, in fact he really used to go there with his father from time
to time.
Mike was looking
ahead of him at the street that he knew that he had to go through "there's no
choice, my future was settled… by the cards…" thinking this words, Mike thought
that from how the things were going there was no guarantee that the future
foreseen by the cards couldn't be changed.
Like whom said that?" That game's rules were so vague that literally
anything would be possible, so there was room for experimentation. "I'll go and bear what I already had to and
see if I can manage to do something interesting, while going through my
destiny, again… but this time It'll be worse.
Way worse." He, as he already did, started to walk to reach his home, he
couldn't see his home clearly since his eyes weren't really helping him, so he
kept saying "Where is it? Where? Where?". He didn't keep to say it only because
pain was totally taking over him, and those words helped him keep momentum and
to not fall under his own instinct of falling on the ground and never get up
again. So, he kept going "I can feel this smell once again, the smell of the
wet wood, even if it's so light, the feeling, of perceiving something… It means
that I'm not dead". His feet proceeded always slower, he looks around and he
sees some little animals around him, like a couple of cute cats, a dog and also
a squirrel. "But that squirrel has something weird on his face" thinking so, he tries to get closer to
the squirrel, but when he can clearly see its face, well it was disgusting "ugh
is that thing… again… the face of those creature, why aren't they only
attacking me, why the squirrel, but this surely didn't happen last time, what
it's going on right now?" Mike doesn't know what exactly he should fear the
most. Because if everything it's inside of his consciousness, he's in real
danger, but if what he sees is true, he is in a even greater amount of danger,
but in that case it would be physical danger.
Art enters the casino with his father, there were a lot of
people there with elegant suits and dresses, the smell of that place changed
from place to place. In some tables, in which there were middle aged men
playing poker he felt the smell of cigars. Then he moved forward "sniff sniff" suddenly a woman walked
near him "Her, probably she is the reason, she is why I am here, I think I can
remember this moment, when I lost everything, I really was so naive, but right
now I can smell the odor of luck, it looks like
this future prediction turned out to be a come back to some good
opportunities, anyways this, all of this is meaningless. What do has meaning
it's what Mike doesn't know, or it could be fairer to say what he can't know."
After saying it his steps become faster, and he reaches the woman that passed
next to him. This woman is very ugly, or at least it was in Art's memory, but
maybe saying ugly isn't the right term. In fact, this lady was just very
unattractive, because of her weight that was consistent. She wasn't obese but
surely, she was very fat. Her hairs looked a bit greasy; her nails look the
same as an old lady's ones even if she isn't that old. Instead, she looked on
her twenties but maybe she just wasn't lucky enough, but that didn't mean that
her look wasn't good, since it too had his own purpose.
Mike in the meantime was seeing before of his very own eyes
things get way worse than the last time he had to suffer that pain. In fact,
walking forward didn't see the house so he though that he was still on one of
the early stages of the memories "this squirrel, augh… get away from me, why so
fast, what… what did I forget". Mike tried to find solution inside of his mind
even if there was no purpose in doing so, since ha would have found no answer,
at the same time the squirrel was following him and that made him feel shivers.
The worse though happened when he turned around "Oh no, what… not those again".
On the ground he saw the little creatures that were half of a inch tall, he
knew that they'd soon become so big that he'd look like a bug in front of them. "augh… eh… augh…" he trying to not get scared
too much started to think about something else, he at least attempted to do so
forcing himself, but his body couldn't bear it anyway, and because of that he
was basically gaping and his eyes were literally so open that he was getting
eye cramps.